The transmittal to the Government of Chile on November 29,
l984 of the pertinent parts of a complaint received by the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, reporting the death of Mr.
Gilberto Mario Fernandez Lopez, who was detained in an establishment
of the National Intelligence Agency (CNI).

The reiteration of this request to the Government of Chile
by the Commission on March 25, l985.

The communication of May 17, l985 in which the Commission
again reiterated to the Government of Chile its request for
information, and informed it of the possible application, should the
information not be received, of Article 42 of its Regulations, in
accordance with which the facts reported in the petition shall be
considered true if the other evidence in the case were not clearly
contrary thereto.

WHEREAS:

In accordance with the information supplied to the
Commission, Mr. Gilberto Mario Fernandez Lopez was arrested in his
home located at 99 Puente de los Cristi Street in the city of Ovalle,
on October 17, l984, by personnel who did not identify themselves but
who, it is presumed, belonged to the National Intelligence Agency and
who proceeded to search the house in the presence of the members of
the affected person's family.

That on the same day, October 17, an application for amparo
was filed on behalf of Mr. Fernandez Lopez with the La Serena Appeal
Court, which rejected it on October 19 on the grounds "that Mario
Fernández López was deprived of his liberty pursuant to an order of
an authority empowered for that purpose and in a case provided for
by the Political Constitution of the State", when it was informed by
the Regional Intendent, Colonel of the Army Hernan Ramirez Rurange,
that Mr. Fernández López had been arrested pursuant to Exempt Decree
819 of the Ministry of the Interior, which directed that the person
affected was to remain five days in the barracks of the Central
Intelligence Agency of the city of La Serena.

Mr. Fernandez Lopez was taken to the establishment of the
National Intelligence Agency, located at 2002 Colo Colo Street in the
city of La Serena from which, on October 18, l984, a call for an
ambulance was made to the Regional Hospital of La Serena.

Personnel of that hospital went to the establishment of the
National Intelligence Agency in the ambulance requested and proceeded
to receive from the physician of the Regiment of the area Mr. Mario
Fernández López, who died in the La Serena Hospital on October 18,
l984, as a result of "exsanguinating anemia caused by rupture of the
abdominal viscera with external injuries", as stated in the
Certificate of Death issued in that hospital, following an emergency
operation on Mr. López.

On October 20, the National Intelligence Agency issued a
communiqué in which it stated that Mr. Fernández L¢pez was arrested
by that agency, since explosive material and subversive propaganda
had been found in his home, which reliably proved his participation
in terrorist acts carried out in the IV Region and reported that the
reason for his admission to the La Serena Hospital and the cause of
his subsequent death was "a sharp fall in of arterial pressure".

On October 24, l984, Mr. William Gilberto Fernández
Cárcamo, the son of the victim, filed a criminal complaint with the
Third Court of La Serena, against the persons responsible for the
death of his father stating in the corresponding document that he had
been able to ascertain that the body of Mr. Fernández López "showed
multiple hematomas on the abdomen, deep lesions and large burns on
his left wrist, such that the veins and deep scratches on his
extremities could be seen".

On the basis of the judicial proceedings carried out the
death due to "unnecessary violence" of Mr. Fernández López was proven
and that, because there was sufficient evidence pointing to the
Agents of the National Intelligence Agency, Marcos Belmar Oyarse and
Miguel Escobar Sanguinetti as the perpetrators of that crime, the
accused were arrested and the records were passed to the Office of
the Military Prosecutor of La Serena.

The Office of the Military Prosecutor mentioned above
submitted the records to the Military Court of Santiago so it could
decide on its competence, which concluded that, because the period
of five days of detention envisaged for indicting the accused had
elapsed and because it had before it no evidence for doing so,
proceeded to release them.

The information gathered on this case shows the
inconsistency of the version provided by the CNI concerning the facts
of this case and, on the contrary, the responsibility of the
officials of the National Intelligence Agency in the death as a
result of torture to which Mr. Mario Fernández López was subjected
has been clearly established and the Government of Chile has not
replied to the request for information made, it is in order to apply
Article 42 of the Regulations of the Commission which provides:

The facts reported in the petition whose pertinent parts had
been transmitted to the Government of the State in reference
shall be presumed to be true if, during the maximum period set
by the Commission under the provisions of Article 34, paragraph
5, the Government has not provided the pertinent information,
as long as other evidence does not lead to a different
conclusion.

In virtue whereof,

THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS,

RESOLVES:

To declare that the Government of Chile has violated the
right to personal integrity and to life embodied in Article I of the
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, because the
death of Mr. Mario Gilberto Fernández López was the result of the
tortures to which he was subjected while he was held in the power of
the National Intelligence Agency.

To declare that the Government of Chile has violated the
right to a fair trial, embodied in Article XVIII of the American
Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, because it did not
provide an expeditious remedy to effectively protect the physical
integrity and life of Mr. Mario Gilberto Fernandez Lopez.

To declare that the Government of Chile has violated the
right of equality before the law, embodied in Article II of the
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, because it has
not judicially clarified the facts that caused the death by torture
of Mr. Mario Gilberto Fernandez Lopez and has exempted the persons
responsible from submitting to the legal provisions that provide for
the punishment of so serious an offense.

To bring this Resolution to the knowledge of the Government
of Chile so that it may make such observations as it deems pertinent
within a period of forty-five days, calculated from the date of the
respective communication.

To publish this Resolution for the purposes of Article 63
(g) of the Regulations of the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights if the Government of Chile has not provided sufficient
evidence in the period mentioned in the foregoing paragraph.